Minister of
Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, said yesterday that a new
Vehicle Credit Finance Scheme to make new cars affordable to the ordinary
Nigerian would be in place in the next four months as the details of the scheme
is being worked out. The Minister said that the financing scheme is a
combination of palliative measures, including partnering with banks towards
having a common pool of funds for lending at concessionary interest rate of not
more than 10 percent to potential car owners. He said it is only in Nigeria
that cars are purchased on cash-and-carry basis.
With the new financing scheme, Nigerians will be
able to buy new cars assembled in Nigeria at an interest rate of not more that
10 percent, repayable over a period of four years. Clearing the air on the
effects of the ongoing implementation of the Nigeria Automotive Industrial
Plan, NAIDP, Aganga said there will be no increase in the prices of cars. The
Minister said: “The rumour that the Federal Government has increased the tariff
on imported cars by 70 percent is incorrect and misleading. The Nigerian
automotive manufacturers have already assured the government and all Nigerians
that there is adequate stock of imported vehicles and that its members have not
and will not increase the price of imported vehicles.”
He said that last year about 50,000 vehicles were
imported at an estimated cost of $3 billion, while between January and June
this year 37,000 vehicles were imported before the take off of the auto policy.
He said: “Nigeria is the only country in the world where used vehicle were not
banned following the introduction of the new automobile policy. “This is
because President Goodluck Jonathan had taken into consideration current
socio-economic conditions and would not want to come up with any policy that
will inflict more hardship on Nigerians.”
Looks good on paper but let’s see how this plays
out!
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